Home sweet home

I decided to stay at home today to get the pond cleared up and remove some invasive flag irises that were taking over.The recent heat wave has cooled down a bit making work much easier.

So I attacked the irises early on but was abruptly stopped by the sound of clashing wings and with the sound, a luminous green dragonfly erupted from the reeds in protest.

After much charging about the garden it finally settled and allowed me to approach to no distance at all and of course, I started firing off shots.

After a good half hour the dragonfly obviously had had enough of modelling and departed as quickly as it appeared.

After finally winning the battle with the irises and cleaning up the pond (making it look much bigger) I gave it a brief top up. Soon the damp ground around the pond seemed attractive to the local butterflies that stopped by for a drink. Including this purple hairstreak (a first for me).

All this week a Speckled Bush cricket has been lodging in my bedroom, being the lazy boy I am I have not removed it but had plans to photograph it.

So today I decided to evict it, but not before a photo shoot with the macro lens. Great little critters.

Mid shoot with the cricket I was interrupted by the sound of rustling, soon enough this fella made an appearance attempting to get to dads rat poison!!! I quickly removed it and it curled into a ball on the lawn before retreating in to the undergrowth to feast on snails.

My final model of the afternoon was this froglet, just bigger than my thumbnail!!!

He posed in various positions on the lawn till I lost him in to the undergrowth.

A productive and great day for garden wildlife. Proving you do not need to travel miles to see some great sights.